“Everything in this report is still sliding — it’s still pointing downward,” David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor’s, told CNBC Tuesday. “We still seem to be, at best, scraping along the bottom.”

In other economic news Tuesday, the Conference Board said its closely-followed Consumer Confidence Index rose in January to its highest level in eight months with Americans growing a little more confident about the job market and business conditions.

Separately, the Labor Department said the unemployment rate rose in 20 states last month as employers in most states shed jobs, but it was unchanged in another 15 states. That’s nearly the same as in November, when the rate rose in 21 states, fell in 15 and was the same in 14.